Moroccan Chicken with Apricots and Almonds

December 20th, 2010 Bart

This sweet and savory Moroccan Chicken Recipe was made without using a tagine. I used dried apricots and chicken thighs to create a hearty and comforting stew with prominent, cinnamon, honey, and apricot flavors. I toasted almonds and scattered them over the dish to add texture, as well as to garnish the plating.

Moroccan Chicken with Apricots and Almonds

Click the link for the complete Moroccan Chicken recipe and HD instructional video.

High Definition Video Presented Here:

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 60 minutes

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:

6 Chicken Thighs, bone in and skin on

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tbsp ground cumin

1/2 tbsp powdered ginger

1/2 tbsp turmeric

6 chicken thighs, bone-in, and skin-on

2 medium onions, chopped into 1/2″ (1cm) cubes

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small bushel of parsley, tied into a bouquet

1 small bushel of cilantro, tied into a bouquet (optional)

2 cups of water

2 cups dried apricots

2 tablespoons honey

2 sticks of cinnamon

handful of blanched and sliced almonds

2 cups of couscous

Moroccan Chicken in Dutch Oven

Directions:

In a 4 quart (4l) dutch oven or other heavy cooking pot, heat vegetable oil until hot (but not smoking). Add spices to oil, and fry them up until they are fully mixed in with the oil and start to release their aromas. Frying spices is an Indian cooking technique, that I’ve adapted to this dish. It unlocks their flavor and releases their full potential, IMO

Add the chicken thighs to the oil and spice mixture, and brown on both sides. Remove from heat and set aside for reintroduction back to the dutch over a bit later

Add diced onions to the same dutch oven you just fried the chicken thighs in, and soften the onions for 5-10 minutes

Cover with Chicken stock until the liquid level is almost covering the chicken thighs, but not entirely. This Moroccan Chicken dish results in a thick stew, and NOT a soup, so don’t add too much liquid

Bring the dutch oven up to a near boil, and turn down to low to cook for 55-60 minutes

Meanwhile, add water, apricots, honey, and cinnamon to a small sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Reduce down until the liquid is about 1/3 of the original water volume, and apricots are soft and tender

At about 40 minutes of cooking the dutch oven on low, add the contents of the small pot with apricots to the dutch oven, and mix well. Let this simmer of another 15-20 minutes, and remove off heat

Place almonds on a baking sheet under the broiler, and toast for 1-2 minutes, occasionally tossing the almonds to mix them

Plate the Moroccan chicken over a bed of couscous, and sprinkle with toasted almonds. Garnish with additional parsley (and/or cilantro). Make sure everyone has plenty of apricots on their plate too – they are amazing when prepared this way.

This recipe has been adapted from a Epicurious recipe, which can be found below. I’ve modified it so that you can make it without a tagine, and I used a few different techniques in my cooking process: